Kick-Butt New “Fashion Photography Accessory” Discovery!

At Christmas I got a very cool new electric guitar from my wife (that’s not the accessory, by the way), and she wanted to make sure I got a guitar I really liked, so I went to the local music store to find one I liked, but while there, I walked by the drum department and that’s when I saw a small, specially designed fan for drummers that mounts right on a cymbal stand.

Well, I took a look at how it was mounted and realized that it would fit perfectly on a lightstand, which would make it an ideal fan for people shooting fashion, because you can easily control the height and angle of the wind (rather than having it sitting on the floor, where it’s harder to access and aim).

Anyway, the fan is called the “BLOWiT Personal Cooling System” (OK, the name needs some work), and I tried it in the music store, and it seemed like a perfect fan solution for portraits since you could mount it up high so easily. So, I got home and ordered one (it was only $69.99). It’s pictured here below mounted to a light-stand in our studio.

Anyway, I did a shoot week before last and I got to try it out for the first time on a real job, and I have to say; it totally rocked! (sorry about that lame pun). But seriously, it worked out amazingly well. The shot below was taken using that fan on its lowest setting.

Below are two set-up shots (taken by Brad Moore) so you can see the fan (and the lighting, in case you care) in use during my shoot.

Lighting Info: I used two Elinchrom RX-600 Strobes for the shoot, one beside the subject with a 40″ Elinchrom softbox, and one behind on the opposite side with a Elinchrom strip bank softbox. Both are triggered by Skyport wireless triggers.There are no lights on the gray background, so it pretty much fell to black. The photo directly above is just to show more detail of the fan, but there I’m using an Elinchrom 53″ midi-octa softbox on the same RX-600 strobe.

Camera Info: Shot with a Nikon D3, with a 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens, at 105mm. The ISO was 200, and the exposure was f/8 at 1/160 of a second. I shot in Manual mode. The post-processing was done in Lightroom (exposure, white balance, tone, etc.), and then over to Photohsop for some retouching (removing some minor blemishes, brightening the eyes, some dodging and burning, and I enhanced the highlights in her hair.

Fan Info: Usually, doing something like this (taking a fan made for drummers, and using for something entirely different), doesn’t work out, but here it worked just like I hoped it would. I let the subject be in charge of the angle and intensity of the fan, and during the shoot she would reach over and adjust the angle or speed (it has three speeds). Although we used it on the lowest speed most of the day, if I could add one improvement, it would be for the higher setting to be even higher (I’m not sure that’s possible with its light weight and size). Anyway, I’m pretty psyched about it and wanted to turn you on to this new discovery. You can order your BLOWiT Personal Cooling System direct at their Website (here’s the link).

Posted by Scott Kelby

Scott is the President and CEO of KelbyOne, is also the original “Photoshop Guy”, is the editor and publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Conference Technical Chair for the Photoshop World Conference & Expo, Training Director and instructor for KelbyOne Live Seminars, and author of a string of bestselling technology and photography books.

Bwa ha ha ha!! That’s the best name for a fan I’ve ever heard. Leave it to the rock guys to come up with a good product and give it a proper name. At least they didn’t call it a “suckit” or a “blowme”.

On Subject: I was doing the exact same type of shoot yesterday as you did here and before I set up I always go back to your books to reference some tips. I flipped through and found that section in your Digital Photography Book 1 about using an F stop that is the sharpest for your lens and WOW did it work like a charm! I set the camera up first, then set the light power (2 RX 600′s, Midi Octa & Rotolux) to F7.1 (about 2 stops above 3.5, the lowest) and voila- you could see every detail tack sharp on the model, even at full length. The client was blown away (no reference to the fan), and I gotta say thanks for all the tips ’cause they work! Cheers!

http://www.seimstudios.com Seim Studios

This looks really cool Scott, what a good idea. They should make one specifically for photographers and bundle it with a stand. Open up a whole new market. They couls call it “anything but” Blowit ;)

Gav

http://www.tanyaplonka.com Tanya Plonka

…but then they would charge $1000 for it! I’m fine with silly fan names in the case of cheap repurposing ;)

http://www.ajwood.com A.J. Wood

Great find. I’ll be looking to pick one of those fans up from Guitar Center in the future.

http://alanvalek.com/blog alanvalek.com

That’s an awesome idea. Thanks Scott.

http://rockhoppermedia.blogspot.com Richard Cave

Fantastic!

http://www.theis.dk/blog Theis

It’s surely cheaper than some of the purpose made fans. I might try to find something like this en Denmark :)

http://www.scottwyden.com Scott

Great find!!

jazzdog

Thanks for the tip Scott. As a drummer and photographer I’m now doubly interested in picking one of these up.

http://www.cuerdon.com David Cuerdon

Cool Find Scott!

…and a lot cheaper than the “pro” Wind Machine that everyone had to buy 10 years ago at $1,500.00!!!!!!!

When I’m on location, outside, I use rechargeable cordless leaf blower to blow the hair. It can be directed just at the hair and is not as loud or smelly as a gas powered leaf blower. They can be found online or any lawn and garden store for under $50.00.

Again, thanks so much for all the great info.!!!!!!

http://aaronnoblephotography.com Aaron

Hey Scott good idea I have one from Target for 19.00 and will do the same thing clips on light pole or just about anything else you can put a clamp on. Question for you what is the size of your indoor shooting area. I am looking at a home where I may convert the 2 car garage to a studio. just want to be sure size dont become a matter. Thanks

Cary

So…what guitar did you pick? (no pun intended)

Cal

Enough of this photographic stuff :)

Tell us what “axe is hung low around the kelby neck” :)

Removes tongue firmly from the cheek.

http://www.g2graphicsmore.com Gary

Scott, what a great find!

I’m wondering – I see all of the posts that you do on your website at 1-2 AM in the morning. When do you sleep? What is your typical daily schedule like?

Anyway, keep up the great work, and keep the ideals rolling!

Sean

The Vornado 540B (about $45) is a slightly cheaper option..pushes a LOT of air and clips on to any light stand. There are many cheaper clip on fans over at Amazon. $70 for this is a little steep IMHO. I’ve bought air conditioner for that price..lol.

http://www.photoshopdave.com dave

What every model wants for there birthday….a “blowit” fan to make there hair look sexy.

Dennis

Nice find. One question I have is; if one has a fog machine (like the ones that go on sale after hoolween), and one wants to move the fog around the set very slowly, is the fan on it’s lowest setting to much for fog, or just right?

Thanks Scott for your blog.

Dennis

Dave_D

As usual, an informative and entertaining post. Thanks for all you do.

“…if I could add one improvement, it would be for the higher setting to be even higher…”

My day job is at the “local music store” except the mailorder center dealing with the online orders (Here in lovely Tampa, Fl.) When these first arrived at work I was stoked to say the least. I am a drummer, and the construction of this fan looks like it could handle the abuse of set-up and tear down, night after night, gig after gig. Interesting idea using it for photography though. The shots look beautiful!